1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a medical image reproducing system for reproducing and recording on a recording medium such as a photosensitive material a medical image for diagnosis obtained by X-raying or the like, and more particularly to such a medical image reproducing system in which a plurality of recording media are distributed to a plurality of trays according to a predetermined algorithm after an image is recorded on each recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been known a medical image reproducing system in which medical image data obtained from a recording system or a read-out system such as a CT, MRI, CR or the like is reproduced as a visible image on a recording medium such as a photosensitive material. Such a medical image reproducing system is sometimes provided with a sorting function of distributing recording media to a plurality of trays according to sorting information such as numbers representing the recording systems by which the images on the respective recording media were taken, thereby facilitating sort of the images.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,782, there is disclosed a medical image reproducing system which comprises a plurality of image read-out systems each of which reads out medical images recorded on stimulable phosphor sheets and a single image output system which outputs a plurality of recording media on which the images read out by the image read-out systems are reproduced, and in which the recording media are distributed to a plurality of trays according to the read-out system by which the image reproduced on each recording media is read out. Further there has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,782 a medical image reproducing system in which the recording media are distributed to a plurality of trays according to the recording system by which the image reproduced on each recording media is taken. Further there has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,782 a system in which the recording media are distributed to a plurality of trays according to the operator of the recording system by which the image reproduced on each recording media is taken, the object (patient), the department which requests the image or the like.
In any of these systems, trays are allocated in advance. For example, a first tray is for a first recording system, a second tray is for a second recording system, and so on. Then the recording media are distributed to the trays on the basis of information on the recording systems or the like.
The systems are disadvantageous in that since the trays must be allocated in advance, the number of kinds into which the images output from the image output system are to be divided must be estimated in advance and the number of trays allocated for the images of each kind must be estimated in advance.
However the number of kinds of the images and the number of images of each kind greatly vary day by day and it is sometimes difficult to estimate them in advance. For example, when the images are divided according to the recording system by which the images are recorded, it is relatively simple to estimate the number of kinds of the images and the number of images of each kind since the number of the recording systems is limited and generally smaller than the number of the trays. On the other hand, when the images are divided according to the kinds of the objects, the estimation is very difficult since the number of kinds of the objects is not limited and generally larger than the number of the trays.